Workbench HD Icons

[manic23]

Just a small question if I may? I have always wondered this, even back in the day when I first had my Amiga A1200, but I didnt have internet or the wonderful EAB in those days to ask the question!

when you format a hard drive in WB with 2 or more partitions, DH0 always has a nice icon that kind of looks like a hard drive. however DH1, DH2 etc will not have this icon, for some kind of paranormal reason that I have never understood, Workbench puts a floppy disk icon for the other partitions.

For the love of god WHY? Was it a bug? by design? Or some technical reason that I never knew about? I know it's not a big issue as it's easy to change, I'm just curious why this happens.

[fitzsteve]

On your primary partition you will have a file called 'Disk.icon' you wont be able to see this file without a file manager like Directory Opus but it contains the Icon you see for that drive.

You can copy it to the other drives if you want the same Icon (using your file manager or CLI) or you can use an Icon management tool like 'copyicon' to create or replace the Icon.

There are lots of Icon packs on Aminet or you can check out one of the Classic Workbench packs if you want a head start

You can also change the default Icon shown for different types of Disks, like CD, Floppy, etc but this is where things start to get a little more complex

[manic23]

Thanks, but I wasn't really asking how to change the icon, I know how to do that, I was just asking why Commodore made it behave that way, seems very strange to me.

[mfilos]

Although I have much time to tinker WB3.1 and bellow, I think that format doesn't give icons (meaning disk.info) to any partition (even DH0).
It's just the installation script of Install Disk that copies the appropriate icon to the main SYS partition.

[thomas]

Workbench does not distinct between hard disks and floppy disks. There is only one default disk icon. You can change the default icon by saving it as envarc:sys/def_disk.info.

The format command will copy the default icon to the new disk as disk.info if you tell it so. If a disk has no icon, the default icon will be used anyway.

If you want to distinguish between different disk types, you have to save your own disk.info files to those disks which should not look like the default icon.

Since OS 3.5 there is a system-friendly way to have more than one default icon and the DefIcons44 program uses this method to allow different icons for different drives. If you create envarc:sys/def_<drivename>.info (for example envarc:sys/def_df0.info), it is used instead of def_disk.info for that specific drive.

[eva]

Originally Posted by thomas

If you want to distinguish between different disk types, you have to save your own disk.info files to those disks which should not look like the default icon.

I do not think this is correct. After copying an .info file to the root of the partition as disk.info and rebooting the icon displayed on the desktop is still a default icon although it shows in Icons->Information... This does not seem to work on Workbench 3.1.

[Arnie]

When you say .info file, what sort of file are you talking about? Any .info file to be used as a disk.info has to be a disk.info file, i.e. not a tool, drawer or project .info file.

[eva]

Originally Posted by Arnie

When you say .info file, what sort of file are you talking about? Any .info file to be used as a disk.info has to be a disk.info file, i.e. not a tool, drawer or project .info file.

Thanks! That makes sense now.

[eva]

I have not had much luck replacing icons. I have tried:

• IconUpdate - http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/IconUpdate
• IconCopy - http://aminet.net/package/gfx/misc/IconCopy
• AddIcon - http://aminet.net/package/util/cli/2b_AddIcon20

They all crash the A1200 when trying to set an icon for a volume. I am using the .info files from the Disk drawer of IconArchive: http://aminet.net/package/pix/mwb/IconArchive

Is there any way to tell of what type some arbitrary .info file is? Or perhaps a way to set the icons in a non-ambiguous way?

[eva]

Originally Posted by eva

Is there any way to tell of what type some arbitrary .info file is? Or perhaps a way to set the icons in a non-ambiguous way?

I have answered my own question at: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=982502#post982502 Thanks!

[Retrofan]

The best way to copy icons I've tried so far is CopyIcon http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/CopyIcon44

Edit: Link edited.

Anyway to work with icons it is better to use DOpus, like on my AmiKit Real version.

[fitzsteve]

+1 for copyicon - works great with all Icons I tried, OS3.5 type, New Icons, Magic Icons, OS4 dual png, etc.

[Overmann]

I know that this is a bit of a necro, but I have a problem with OS 3.1.4. I'm trying to change the HDD icon for DH1: to the icon that is def_harddisk in evnarc. But neither iconcopy or copyicon will "read" the def-icon. I do notice that if I click it and chose 'information' it is a different type then def_sysdisk.

I also tried:
MAKELINK RAM:disk.info ENVARC:def_ramDISK.info

but get an error saying that the type is wrong, or something to that effect. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

I don't really understand but OS 3.1.4 doesn't use "def_ramDISK.info" yet "def_ram.info"

[spudje]

I'm struggling with this as well. AOS3.2 creates a nice HD with boing ball (glow?)icon for System drive. I have 2 questions:
- Iirc there is also a similar icon without the boing ball, correct
- Where is this located, so I can use it to change the icon of the work: drive

Thx!

[AMIGASYSTEM]

That Disk icon does not belong to OS 3.2, but belongs to the OS.3.9 CD.

The icon without the boing is on the OS 3.9 CD and installed in the OS 3.9 system.

If you want the same icon on other volumes you have to copy the file "Disk.info" that you find in the root of OS 3.9 or on the OS3.9 CD.

[AmiClassic]

Or find this on GlowIcon Collection for AmigaOS 3.5 (1999):

[spudje]

Thanks, I found similar glowicon sets in the 3.1.4 & 3.2 disk sets. It was a bit illogical to go look for them somewhere in an extras folder.

[madmungo]

I just use the Amiga key combo of Right Amiga + i and then drag and drop the new Icon ontop of the one shown in the info window.